GSA pushes open source, cloud for all new IT projects

Aug. 5, 2014 - 06:00AM
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The General Services Administration will require all new IT projects be open source, according to a policy announced by the agency Aug. 1.

Sonny Hashmi, chief information officer at GSA, said in a blog post the agency will also give open-source software priority as it designs new software services.

“At GSA, we believe that all code we developed should be shared under an open license so others may benefit from it,” Hashmi said.

The open-source policy is part of a series of requirements that all GSA projects must meet in order to drive innovation, reduce cost and provide better services, according to Hashmi.

Other requirements for GSA IT projects include:

■Making sure that cloud services will be the default approach when designing all new IT solutions. Cloud computing has saved the agency time and money, according to Hashmi.

■Opening up and sharing project data whenever possible. GSA projects will be designed and managed to promote sharing and to make sure data is easily available to those who need it.

■Integrating all new services and programs with a single identity and access management process for seamless sign-on, reducing the burden of multiple passwords and increasing security.

“These principles will guide us as we continue to modernize our organization, processes, technologies and platforms at GSA,” Hashmi said. “This policy will evolve with time as we adopt new paradigms and evolve our capabilities as an organization.”

The agency is also pushing for new IT projects to reuse existing platforms to reduce costs and to cut down on the development time for new programs.

It also helps decrease the risk of duplication, Hashmi said.

The agency is also requiring that cybersecurity be designed into its systems from the beginning, as opposed to being implemented toward the end of the project.■